Threads of Fate
by Livyathan
Summary: A series of one-shots involving 10, 11, Rose Tyler, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song and more.
1. Doomsday: Burning Up a Sun

Doomsday: Burning Up a Sun  
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"There's one little gap in the universe let, just about to close. And it takes a lot of power to send this projection. I'm in orbit around a supernova. I'm burning up a sun just to say goodbye."  
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He had come to say 'goodbye', to apologize and explain. He did not expect for her to suddenly be kissing him; tenderly, with a feeling of desperation and a sense of need that he has never known before. He feels fingers curl into his jacket, and his feet move him another step closer. His hands are ghosting the space above her hips. His eyes close, and he sees everything that he has always wanted; the life he has dreamed of, the idea that he does not have to be a lonely old man in a little blue box forever. She has already emphasized her willingness, her desire, to leave everything behind, to travel through time and space and just be with him. A breath, and he tastes scones on her plump lips. Another, and their whole future is splayed out before him. Tempting him to take her away forever, to just be his until never.

It is a future he knows they can never have. Because she only human, and he is not, and she deserves to be happy and out all of the wondrous and mysterious things that he was capable of, he couldn't provide that for her. Not in the end.

Reluctantly, he pulls away, and fresh tears spill from jade-colored orbs.

"I'm sorry," He takes a step back, if only to regain his composure, as his hands fall limply back to his sides. He knows it is not enough, it will never be enough for her, not after the things she had seen and the place she has been. He fears the knowledge of what lies out there will slowly drive her insane.

"Will I ever see you again?" Her voice begs, please for his answer to be 'yes', that someday her Doctor will come back for her, and take her away from this place.

The Doctor shakes his head, and crushes her whole world with two words, "You can't." A strangled sob escapes her lips, and she momentarily buries her face in her hands. "Both universes would collapse if I tried to come through. I only wanted you to be happy, Rose—."

"I'm happy with you!" She interjects, her fingers return to their loose grip around his jacket material. She cannot bring her eyes to meet his; doing so would be admitting to his imminent – and very permanent – departure. "I've always been happy with you. Please, please don't leave me. I love you."

She feels calloused hands, rough from centuries of adventuring and working, softly free her jacket's lapel from her grasp. For a moment, one hand wraps around hers, and offers nothing more than a fleeting, sentimental glance.

"Rose, I—," But it is too late. The warm grip disappears from around her hand, and she if left alone standing in the ocean's cold breeze. He is gone, and she is here, and somewhere, deep in the universe, a pair of lonely hearts are breaking.


	2. Better a Broken Heart

_**Better a Broken Heart**_

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_Looking back, he had come to the conclusion that he really was a horrible person; to his enemies; to his people; to his companions; to himself. _

_How long had he been standing at his central console, eyes wet with unshed tears, fo__rcing himself to sit through that memory over and over again? He forced himself to watch if only to remember - remember the pain of that goodbye, the pain that they were both still alive, and the knowledge that he could never hold her again._

_His finger twitched, and another replay began. He watched as the TARDIS landed on that rocky cliff, so painfully similar to the outskirts of the bay in which they parted. He remembered vividly the look of surprise, of happiness on her face as the salty air danced gleefully through her dirty blonde locks. And her smile - O! the smile she had given him, jaded eyes capturing his own chocolate ones; her small hand was tightly laced with his much larger one. He remembered the sunset, too, the beautifully brushed hues of orange and red, purple and black as the night swirled with his brother. He remembered the way the sunlight had cast an angelic look about her face, her hair glowing golden. He had watched her then, like nothing he had ever seen. He watched her memory the same way now. He watched the serene look on her face as the suns disappeared and white waves crashed on broken cliffs __below and the surprise when twin moons rose from the mountains to claim their place among a sea of diamonds._

_Tears blurred his vision again all too soon. He scrubbed his face, eyes raw from crying, and hit a large red button before him. He __choked back his guilt, yet again, as the screen blinked and went black._

_In a flash, Rose had left her Doctor the same way he had left her on that cold, windy beach - alone, broken, and in tears._


	3. The Eleventh Hour

_**The Eleventh Hour**_

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He feels a stabbing pain in his chest, and collapses on the stairs beneath him. His hand grips the sonic screwdriver, the very same one he had when young fingers first brushed the antique TARDIS console, his console, so many centuries ago. Another wave, and his face contorts. He feels a presence before him, as a shadow falls over his face. He forces bleary eyes open to see her standing there, fresh tears glossing over rosy cheeks.

"My doctor," She whispers. "I can't let you die, not yet." She tries to advance, to comfort him and help him off the stairs, but she is waved away by a bloodied hand.

"I have to die," He argues. "It must be done. Nothing, no one, can stop it. I've got to regenerate. Believe me, it isn't by choice!" He tries to laugh and chokes instead, and wipes fresh sweat away with a shaky hand. Is this how it feels then, to know that in a matter of moments everything ends? Every memory, every adventure, every relationship becomes just another blip in the life of a Time Lord? If so, he suddenly thinks that being a Time Lord isn't an ideal lifestyle.

"Shut up!" Her voice quivers. He sees worry, a raw, ancient concern, flashes through damp eyes. "I know you have to die, I've seen it. I just… I can't let you die with knowing—"

"Without knowing what?" His voice his harsh and the interruption causes her to flinch. She is not usually this jumpy, this nervous, around people. Especially not around _**him**_.

"Without knowing that you are loved, Doctor, by so many, and so much. The things that you've done, the people you've helped, the lives you've changed! You've done so many wonderful things, and no one can ever thank you for it, because they're never supposed to know. They'll never know about the wonderful, lonely man traveling in a blue box who goes around saving worlds, even when he doesn't want to."

"River…" He is growing weak, and talking has suddenly become difficult.

"You are loved, and by no one more than me." She lets her tears fall freely now, her heart open for the world to see. She is only feet from him, he notices, this beautiful woman who has been through so much with him, hunted him, loved him, although he isn't entirely sure about that last part. "Even if you do not know it yet."

His chest seizes, and suddenly he can't breathe. A wave of unfamiliar emotion, a previously unknown sensation, crashes over his head, and for the first time in a long time, the Doctor doesn't know what to say to the woman standing in front of him. What a way to die, he thinks, knowing that a future with her cannot exist; he knows it was never meant to be, that it never existed to begin with, but she was the one who taught him the beauty of dreaming again.

His own lip is quivering now, and he cannot bring himself to break her gaze. He knows this situation happened before, somewhere in the past; he can see broken images of a girl on the beach, and a previous Doctor destroying his console in angry heart ache. He takes a breath and coughs. His is fading faster by the second.

"I'm sorry, River…" 

And the world goes black.


	4. Donna Noble: Watch and Listen

Donna watched.

She was always watching, waiting, trying to pick and pry at the man they called 'The Doctor'. Since their journey began, she had been trying to determine what made him tick, why he thought the things he did, what made him so reluctant to talk about far-gone events of the past, and why he was so afraid of the Daleks. But that day in Norway, on that cold, desolate beach, Donna understood.

Often, throughout their adventures, he would mention another. 'Rose,' he would always say, 'I remember this one time…' and Donna would sit, and and listen, and deep down be in envy of all the wonderful and amazing things that this Rose woman was able to accomplish. She often wished she had been brave and ambitious like Rose, unafraid of the unknown, ready to jump head-first into the fray. Instead, she would wait. And watch. And follow the Doctor instead of trying to take the lead. She had, in all due credit, managed to befriend the Doctor in a way that Rose had not: purely as a confidant. He had confided many a tale, many a secret and hard-fought emotion to her, and she, in return, attempted to explain away all of her insecurities and shortcomings in her mediocre life.

But here, standing on that cold beach, shivering against the tide winds, Donna understood why Rose was so important to the Doctor. Why they had fought so hard to find each other again, and why his face had lit up like her grandfather's Christmas tree when he saw her standing atop that hill in those war-torn suburbs. Donna watched now as Rose begged and pleaded, watched the Doctor fight himself, whether tearing apart an alternative universe was worth it if it meant having Rose by his side once again. Donna watched that first, heart-breaking tear roll down Rose's cheeks, watching as the Doctor's gaze follow its silver path. She watched his mouth form a thin line of regret, shut from saying everything that she knew needed to be said; watched as he tried to explain away his own shortcoming, why he was leaving her behind with _him_.

In the end, Donna watched Rose embrace the wrong Doctor, the one she knew would replace her friend in the girl's heart, and make Rose happy until they grew old together and passed. Donna watched her dearest friend tear his own heart to pieces, in the hopes that it might repair those hearts so savagely broken by the things he had done.

In the end, Donna watched the Doctor's eyes crumble underneath her own pathetic pleas as cold, calloused fingers brushed against her temples, and one last fleeting apology floated through the chilly air.


End file.
